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Sunday, March 17, 2013

We had a noon dismissal on Friday due to conferences, which I finished the day prior. Rather than go home and turn my teacher brain off, I decided to get caught up on work while the building was relatively quiet. I have felt like my teacher life had been put in a blender and pulverized into a fine puree recently. Gone were the days of having planning periods...within the last 2 weeks, I have added a Sound Breakers program (developmental speech tutoring), a weekly kindergarten reading enrichment group that the principal lovingly asked me to start, and 7th grade ELA for two wonderful girls for reasons I will not discuss. Oh yeah, picking up tutoring a second grader (former kindergarten student) in English tomorrow. Holy change to one's schedule, Batman. Lacking a cape or super powers, I trudged through the best I could. Friday was the day I got my teacher life back on track. I am the binder queen...seriously. Some great, fabulously incredible person donated boxes of binders last year, and I grabbed all I could carry. And, I have filled the last few recently.

What I realized Friday and today, as I sit down to finish up, is that I have yet to open a teacher's edition for anything. I have found all that I need on Pinterest, blogs, or TPT. And, they are great lessons. I get bored very easily. I am constantly seeking new ideas...and here are a few I have found...

First off...I doubt any of you that have found my little corner of the blogger-sphere are speech teachers (neither am I), but this is a great app if you have a child with speech issues that have not corrected themselves by the correct developmental age (mostly kiddos that do not add the /r/ to the end of their words...hello, Elmer Fudd). It would be a great app to pass onto parents...

My Sound Breaker kiddos are making great strides! I dreaded this with every ounce of my being saw this as an incredible opportunity to learn something new, and it has been a great experience. It is wonderful to see progress that will clearly benefit these children and help their reading take off!

Next up? Kindergarten reading enrichment...right up my alley after 6 years in kindergarten. And these kiddos are amazing readers...reading up to 2 grade levels above. The thought of throwing the same old, same old at them made my belly ache in its deepest crevices so mentor texts it is. I do have them read the leveled reader. With my target skill of character in hand, enter...Pete the Cat, a personal favorite!

If you haven't read this book or seen this video of the author's read aloud complete with song, do yourself a favor and check it out. Kids of all ages LOVE it. But, be prepared...you will be singing this song in your sleep.

So, after that bit of fabulousness, we will proceed to discuss Pete's character with this little bit of loveliness

from

And will fill out this awesome page for a group book

from Pickerington Public Library (another great Pinterest find).

This is proving to be long....I am closing for now as I have much to do. This is my first time embedding pictures and a video! It was a challenge for myself, and I did it!!!!

Sunday, March 10, 2013

I must give a HUGE, COLOSSAL, GYNORMOUS (my word), and heart-felt thank you for the awesomeness that is Megan Favre. She is incredible at sharing her talents with newbies like me. I knew what I wanted this blog to look like, but I could have never, ever not in a million years come up with the cuteness with which she has bestowed upon little 'ole me. I am merging two loves...writing and teaching, and I am overwhelmed with the kindness being shown to me. Thank you for all those who have stopped by. Now I need to get down to business...

It was a crazy week as I am the teacher who wears numerous hats right now. I added 7th grade ELA teacher to my already full schedule. I am in an inclusion model in 4th and 5th ELA, I chair the TAT team at our school, I run our TEACH program in kindergarten (fabulous NILD program...I have 3 of my own cuties),and I just started a speech program called Sound Breakers with 5 Pre-K and Kinders (I work in a private school, and this program lost Title 2 funding). I like to refer to myself as a big, giant band-aid. I was one tired chica last week! I long for the quiet days (ha!) back in a classroom! I do miss my own classroom as I always enjoyed the rapport built with my students, and I am that strange freak-o who even enjoys the parents!

So, in light of all the craziness, I decided it was time to run away this weekend. I packed up my boys, and we headed down to Duck, NC on the Outer Banks in search of our vacation mecca for June. We laughed, we sang...we ate, we shopped...and we picked a fab-o house that will be the perfect place to make memories this summer. I could just see us swinging on the hammock on a lazy evening. I do love me some summer! I am a beach chick at heart...I am happiest with sand between my toes.

I hope y'all have a fabulous week! And those of you who were kind enough to stop by and show me some love, I hope to see you soon!

I will be teaching 3 classes of 4th grade ELA at a Catholic school in Virginia. I am beyond excited as I have missed having my own classroom the two years I have spent as the Reading Resource Teacher! I have two sons, 18 and 14 and a puppy who are the joys of my life! I will watch my oldest head off to Old Dominion University in the fall to study Economics and Marketing. My youngest rides to school with me each morning and will be in the 8th grade.